Clinching the 34th rank in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination, the results of which were declared on May 31, proved extra-special and memorable in Somesh Kumar Upadhyay's life.

Cut to May 31, 2015. Somesh, 28, who was preparing for civil services examination in Delhi, lost his father.

The moment Somesh got to know on Wednesday that he had cracked the UPSC examination in his second attempt, the bitter memories connected with May 31, 2015, were healed.

The middle-class Upadhyays, who hail from Maharwa in north Bihar's Saran district, were ecstatic getting to know the news.

Somesh told The Telegraph: "The date May 31 now has special significance in my life. The UPSC results are a tribute to my father, whose had dreamt that I would crack the civil services examination."

Somesh is the eldest among two sisters and a brother. His father, Upendra Upadhyay, had died after a long battle with cancer. His death dealt a big blow to the family, as Somesh was preparing for civil services examination in Delhi. With not much savings, the family's biggest challenge was to meet the financial expenses of Somesh's studies.

Somesh said: "I know how much trouble and pain my family members had taken for my studies. My two younger sisters, Anjali and Ananya, used to run the family by giving tuitions. My uncle, Vinod Upadhyay, supported me financially in my studies in Delhi."

Somesh completed Class X from Ramharipur Ramakrishna Mission located in Bengal's Bankura and Class XII from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar. Thereafter, Somesh moved to Calcutta to pursue microbiology from St Xavier's College. Graduation over, he moved to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai for his post-graduation in 2013. The youth, whose optional paper in UPSC examination was geography, is preparing for the civil service examination since October, 2014.

The story of Kumar Sunny Raj, who has clinched the 132nd rank in UPSC, is of hard work and dedication. The son banker Chitranjan Kumar Shrivastava, Sunny always dream of cracking the UPSC examination. The student of DAV Khagaul moved to NIT-Jamshedpur after completing his Xth and XIIth. After completing his engineering from NIT-Jamshedpur, he joined IOCL in Assam and worked for five years. In 2015, he left his high-paying job at IOCL and started preparations for civil services and in 2017, he cleared the examination with flying colours.

Sunny said: "From my childhood, I had dreamt of becoming an IPS officer and with this aim, I prepared for the civil services. Though I am from engineering background, I opted for geography as the paper is high-scoring."

Another successful candidate, Shashi Prakash Singh, who has secured the 75th rank in the UPSC examination, also quit his marine engineer's job in 2014 to pursue his dream.

Prakash, who hails from Bhabura in Bhojpur district, said: "I did my schooling from St Xavier's School, Sahibganj and Class XII from DPS Bokaro. Later, I joined Marine Engineering and Research Institute, Calcutta, and after working for two-and-a-half years, I left the job and started preparing for the civil services examination."

This year's UPSC rank list also figures Gaurav Kumar, a Patna boy, who has secured the 789th rank. Gaurav, the son of Sanjeev Kumar, a farmer at Lakshmanpur-Bathe village in Arwal district comes from the village, where 58 Dalits were massacred in caste violence.

Sources said in this year's UPSC results, more than 30 students had cleared the examination from Bihar. But the majority of students who cleared the examination are from Bihar but have either studied or done UPSC preparation from outside Bihar. Somesh, Sunny and Shashi are visible examples.

Rash Bihari Prasad Singh, the newly appointed vice-chancellor of Patna University who had earlier run a coaching institute in Patna for UPSC candidates, said: "In the past few decades, coaching institutions in Bihar, especially Patna, have failed to perform. These coaching institutes lack infrastructure and no good quality teachers."

He added: "As the success rate of students from these coaching institutes have drastically gone down in years, students from these coaching institutes are going to Delhi or other cities for coaching for UPSC preparations."